Prevailing Market Conditions Entice the Private Sector

Just in the past six months alone, there have been a number of laboratory acquisitions by private equity portfolio companies: Welsh Carson Anderson and Stowe, which owns National Dentex, acquired nSequences; HealthpointCapital added Cosmo Dental Lab and Lemke Dental Lab, which will be combined with Hermanson Dental Laboratory to its MicroDental Laboratories network (formerly DTI); and Beacon Bay Holdings, which owns da Vinci and NuLife, acquired Cal Ceram Dental Laboratory. While private equity is not new to our community, the prevailing market conditions continue to entice the private sector. “On the surface, our seven billion dollar industry with low, single-digit growth might not look like an exciting investment opportunity. However, beneath the surface there are persistent trends that are fundamentally reshaping our industry,” says Kim Bradshaw, President and CEO of MicroDental Laboratories. “The general investment thesis is that the combination of CAD/CAM technologies...